An “Unclean” 12th Day

This morning we discovered that Elfie has not only a naughty and humorous side, but also an artistic one! Look what he did to our bananas while we were sleeping! One of my favorite things about the last 12 days is that Johnathan has been learning to look up the scripture in his new Bible. We have really only been reading in Matthew and Luke, but Johnathan is now able to find those 2 books, locate the correct chapter and verses we are reading in! How awesome is that! Today Elfie brought us a great story in scripture to learn about found in Luke 17: 11-19:

11 Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. He traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12 As he was going into a village, ten men met him. They had a skin disease. They were standing close by. 13 And they called out in a loud voice, “Jesus! Master! Have pity on us!”

14 Jesus saw them and said, “Go. Show yourselves to the priests.” While they were on the way, they were healed.

15 When one of them saw that he was healed, he came back. He praised God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus’ feet and thanked him. The man was a Samaritan.

17 Jesus asked, “Weren’t all ten healed? Where are the other nine? 18 Didn’t anyone else return and give praise to God except this outsider?” 19 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up and go. Your faith has healed you.”

I have heard so many sermons and teachings on this passage, all with different points and lessons. Today we focused on the fact that these 10 sick men had no problem crying out to Jesus and asking Him for pity and healing. That is us right? We don’t think twice about crying out to God in our time of need and hardship. I think that is alright. Just like these men did, we believe that God has the power to heal us and it is good to look to Him for that healing. The second part of this story is that Jesus responded to the men. He gave them a simple instruction to “Go…show yourselves to the priest.” Now I am confident that there is much to read into this instruction, but for the sake of preschool minds we are keeping it simple. They asked God for something, He asked them for something in return…..obedience. If we are going to seek God and beg mercy of Him, isn’t it fair that we obey Him in return?

Of course the popular theme in this passage is that the men were all healed from their sickness on the way to the priest. They asked God for healing, they obeyed His instruction, they were healed. Awesome! That is a true miracle! The last part of this story, to me, is the most important…..only one man came back to give Jesus thanks. The Bible says he threw himself at the feet of Jesus. This is the proper response to being healed! He realized who his Healer was and he wasted no time finding His feet. He didn’t need to go running around showing people that he was better. He just needed to be in the presence of God Almighty. Why did the other men not return? What were they doing? Were they just “using” Jesus for their own personal gain? And the most important question……which man would we be? Would we be running to the feet of Jesus, throwing ourselves on our face before God in amazement and gratitude? Or would we be running around town, about our business, forgetting the God who healed us? Now leave it to my sweet Ian to point our that this man was “at the feet of Jesus”, and “I bet that was stinky!” Haha, you know he is probably right! I love how naturally Ian thinks of these very practical parts of each story.

Of course the boys and I all agreed that we would be the man who went back to thank Jesus, but I can’t help but wonder how often in our daily lives we forget about the God who has healed us, or rescued us from a wreck we might have been in, or the God who wakes us up each day with air in our lungs and a beating heart in our chest. If I am honest, I think most days I am more like the 9 men that never returned than I am the one man falling at the feet of Jesus. I don’t want to be one of those 9 men, but if I do not live my life on purpose I can get so caught up in MY agenda and what I did today.

Father, help me to be constantly living at your feet. Help me to be ever mindful of every second that you bless me and give me so much more than I deserve. At Your “stinky” feet is where I want to live every moment……every day.

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I am wife to Matt, and mom to Johnathan, Ian, and Jacob. I have the incredible privilege to be a follower of Jesus Christ. I am just a regular mom who stumbles and falls more often than I like to admit. My hope is that by sharing the stories and words God lays on my heart with others that someone might come to know Him and realize how truly beautiful they are! Read More…

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